Video: Store manager fights off masked gunman

When a man wearing a hockey mask put a long-barreled gun to a convenience store manager’s chest, the store manager grabbed the gun and beat him with it.

Lori Monsewicz

When a masked robber put a long-barreled gun to a convenience store manager’s chest, the manager grabbed the gun and began beating the robber with it.

“I’m not going to go down with any of this bologna. No scare tactics here. This is my livelihood,” said Naji T. Abboud, general manager for Buckeye Fuel and Food. “You can’t live in fear.”

The incident took place at 9:37 p.m. Sept. 15 at the store at 4235 Middlebranch Ave. NE .

The action was captured on a surveillance video, which shows Abboud chasing the robber from the store.

The robber returned, nonchalantly walking back and forth in the parking lot and alongside the building while smoking a cigarette.

“It is as if he were waiting on someone or a ride,” said Abboud, befuddled.

Stark County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the robbery. No arrests have been made.

And while Abboud is concerned about retaliation, he wants other area businesses to be aware that an armed robber is on the loose and, he wants them to know, “don’t be afraid.”

ROBBED AT GUNPOINT

Abboud was behind the counter on that Thursday night when a dark-colored car pulled up near the gas pumps.

Two men can clearly be seen walking into the store. One bought a bag of chips, the other, a soda. They stood at the counter, talking to Abboud.

“They were discussing business and crime in the area,” he recalled. “They said the store was in a good location and ‘You’re not in any danger here because you are not in downtown Canton where people are getting killed.’ ”

Abboud said that when he purchased the business several months ago, he had removed the steel covering the windows and the door because he wanted his customers to feel safe. The store opened Aug. 6.

The man buying pop argued briefly about the tax on the pop, and Abboud recalled telling him, “Hey, Uncle Sam needs a drink, too. Look, if you don’t like paying the 5 cents, I will pay the 5 cents.’”

As they talked, a man wearing a hockey-type mask opened the front door with a long-barreled gun and walked behind the counter toward Abboud. The two men on the other side of the counter backed up, hands and arms outstretched at their sides.

“He walked behind the counter, put the gun to my chest and he told me, ‘Give me your money, (expletive),’ ” Abboud recalled. “I took the shotgun away from him. I beat him with it. We had a little scuffle. He took to the end of the counter.”

Abboud went after him. The scuffle continued and then the robber broke away. He made it outside.

Abboud followed.

“I beat him again,” Abboud said, adding that it was then he fell, suffering a twisted knee and ankle and a back injury.

IN HINDSIGHT...

A self-described Lebanese Christian, Abboud came to the area as a Walsh University student studying physics and math. A native of Lebanon who served in the Lebanese military’s special forces in 1979 and 1980, Abboud said that when the robber put a gun to his chest, he wasn’t afraid, “just stupid.” But that if he had to do what he did to the robber again, he would, “in a heartbeat.”

“I’m glad I was here because I can take it.” Still, he said, the robbery was even a shock to him.

Abboud said he initially didn’t know where the robber went after the robbery.

Then he watched his store surveillance videos.

“For some strange reason, he came back — and smoking a cigarette, “ Abboud said.

The man he said robbed him returned to the gas station parking lot and walked in front of the store and then back and forth along the side of the brick building while smoking a cigarette.

Bold and brazen?

“Or stupid,” Abboud said. “I wish people would just go find a darn job. We all work for a living, right?”

Then on Sept. 21, less than a week after the robbery, someone in a two-tone, late ‘80s-model Ford Ranger with an extended cab pulled into the parking lot — in plain view of the store’s surveillance cameras. The driver stopped and backed up, and then the nearest camera went black, said his friend, Dave Mitchell.

A short time later, the truck pulled forward again, as captured by another store surveillance video.

Then the entire pop machine that had been located outside the building was gone.

Anyone with information about the robbery or the pop machine theft may call Stark County Sheriff’s deputies at 330-430-3800.